A hearing is scheduled at 10:00 am for Tuesday-Wednesday, February 21-22, at the Marlboro County Courthouse, located on Main Street in Bennettsville. SC. This relates to a lawsuit that Marlboro County filed in 2007 against the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, alleging improper procedures and challenging the constitutionality of DHEC’s landfill permitting regulations.

Talking points:
1) North Carolina has a lot at stake, because the entrance to the landfill is in NC, near Hamlet. NC would bear the brunt of 1) train and truck traffic, thus burdening our infrasture; and 2) bring the accompanying garbage juice and trash spills. A packed Courthouse, including North Carolinians, could exert a positive impact at the hearing.

2) The landfill would accept 6,500 Tons Per Day ... a mega-mega-landfill, more than twice the size allowed by the NC Legislature, which is 3,000 Tons Per Day. Marlboro's 13,000 Tons Per Year would take up just two days worth. By comparison, Scotland County's first proposal was for 5,000 Tons Per Day.

3) Marlboro is the last place that SC can put a mega-landfill. Williamsburg County, Kingstree area, was proposed as a landfill site, but recently was taken out of consideration, by the county. For a while it looked like Marlboro might be off the hook because of Williamsburg, but now there is even more pressure from DHEC to give a permit to Marlboro. Why DHEC is determined to have another mega-landfill is not clear ...

4) The case is being tried by Judge Nettles, who sided with the county on the validation of the zoning, in a prior trial.

5) This hearing is of significance, in that it will be the one, in effect, to give the MMR mega-dump the go-ahead, or not.